Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 252
April 29, 2015
What happened to the wedding cake bakers
You know the Christian bakers who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay marriage? That was back in 2013, but it sparked a growing outrage against people exercising their religious liberty to disapprove of gay marriage. Last Friday an Oregon labor panel ruled on their case. The husband and wife who ran [Read More...]
Professional ball game closed to the public
Imagine two professional baseball teams playing each other but not letting any fans watch the game. Maybe that’s the future of professional sports. But it is happening today in Baltimore, where riots over another African-American who died in police custody, have led to the decision that the Orioles-White Sox game would be closed to the [Read More...]
April 28, 2015
Worship is more than praising God
Pastor Mark Schroeder cites a rather compelling quotation on worship from Klemet Preus: “If the Divine Service is viewed primarily as our praising God, then you can do that just as well from home. In fact, once we have looked at the topic of vocation, you will see that we can serve God better in [Read More...]
April 27, 2015
Laestadian Lutherans and their large families
Rev. Christopher Jackson informed me that the new Prime Minister of Finland is a Laestadian Lutheran, a pietist strain best known today for rejecting birth control and having very large families. From Rev. Christopher Jackson: The newly elected PM of Finland, Juha Sipilä, is a Laestadian Lutheran. There are different Laestadian groups out there, but [Read More...]
Zombie democracy
Christopher Walker tells how authoritarian governments are trying to make themselves seem legitimate by constructing a facade of democracy, complete with (fixed) elections, (controlled) news organizations, and even government-sponsored non-governmental organizations, such as human rights groups, election monitors, and environmental groups–all of which work to make the dictators look good and are wreaking havoc in [Read More...]
Earthquake catastrophe in Nepal
A massive earthquake, hitting 7.8 on the Richter scale, hit Nepal, killing at last count some 2,500 people. Avalanches in the Himalayas wiped out whole villages, as well as a base camp of mountain climbers on Mt. Everest. To help go here. From Nepal earthquake survivors: Shell-shocked, sleeping in outdoors, and waiting to see if [Read More...]
April 24, 2015
Thomas More vs. the Reformation
Now that Hilary Mantel’s superb novels about Thomas Cromwell have been made into a TV series, Wolf Hall, her points about the good guys and bad guys in Tudor England are attracting attention and controversy. Conventionally, Cromwell has been considered a Machiavellian villain who helped Henry VIII break from the Church of Rome because of [Read More...]
The Teenage Brain
Parents have long been frustrated with their teenager’s “what was he thinking” moments. Why do bright, thoughtful adolescents so often do things that are foolish and reckless? We now know the reason: their brains are not finished growing. Specifically, the pleasure center is not completely hooked up to the judgement center. The good news is [Read More...]
Laura Ingalls Wilder’s latest best-seller
Back in the 1930′s, an elderly woman wrote a memoir about her life on the American frontier. But no one would publish it. So she recast her memories as a series of children’s novels, giving the world the immortal Little House on the Prairie books. Now that original manuscript, entitled Pioneer Girl has been published [Read More...]
April 23, 2015
Beggars at the Temple gates
The reading for last Sunday at our church was about the lame beggar at the Temple gate who was healed by Peter (Acts 3:1-21). You should see what our pastor did with that passage, showing how we are in the position of the beggar and how we too receive God’s grace at a different kind [Read More...]
